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Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) RSS feed

The Linac Coherent Light Source at SLAC, the world’s first hard X-ray free-electron laser, takes X-ray snapshots of atoms and molecules at work, revealing fundamental processes in materials, technology and living things.

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Rooftop view of Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS)
Feature

Scientists Map Protein in Living Bacterial Cells

Experiment at SLAC's X-ray Laser Opens Door to Exploring Cell Interiors

September 3, 2014  ·  3 min read
Image - These micrograph images show rod-shaped bacterial cells suspended in pure water. The dark rectangular shapes inside the cells correspond to naturally occurring crystals within the cells.
News Release

X-ray Laser Probes Tiny Quantum Tornadoes in Superfluid Droplets

SLAC Experiment Reveals Mysterious Order in Liquid Helium

August 21, 2014  ·  4 min read
Feature

Catching Chemistry in Motion

Laser-timing Tool Works at the Speed of Electrons

August 6, 2014  ·  4 min read
Image - An illustration of the setup used to test an "attosecond" timing tool at SLAC's Linac Coherent Light Source X-ray laser. The dashed line represents the arrival time of the X-ray laser.
Feature
VIA Symmetry Magazine

Partnership Generates Bright Ideas for Photon Science

Photon science, a spin-off of particle physics, has returned to its roots for help developing better, faster detectors.

July 29, 2014
Feature

Bringing High-energy X-rays into Better Focus

SLAC-invented Etching Process Builds Custom Nanostructures for X-ray Optics

July 22, 2014  ·  3 min read
Image - This colorized scanning electron microscope image shows a top-down view of a spiral zone plate, an X-ray optical device, created using a chemical etching technique developed at SLAC. (Chieh Chang, Anne Sakdinawat)
Feature

X-ray Laser Measures Leaping Electrons

SLAC Experiment Provides New Insight About How Electrons Move Across Molecules

July 17, 2014  ·  3 min read
Researchers used SLAC's LCLS X-ray laser to stimulate and measure the electron-transfer process inside a severed methyl iodide molecule.
Feature

Learning the Ropes at SLAC’s Ultrafast X-ray Summer Seminar

Grad Students and Postdocs Get a Crash Course in Using X-ray Lasers

July 3, 2014  ·  3 min read
Archana Raja, a graduate student at Columbia University, explains her group’s poster presentation at SLAC’s Ultrafast X-ray Summer Seminar.
Feature

X-ray Laser Gives Buckyballs a Big Kick

Exploding Soccer Ball-shaped Molecules Will Help Biological Studies

June 27, 2014  ·  4 min read
Image - Buckyballs, molecules composed of 60 carbon atoms, bust apart as they are struck by intense X-ray pulses at SLAC's Linac Coherent Light Source. (Greg Stewart/SLAC)
News Release

Scientists Use X-rays to Look at How DNA Protects Itself from UV Light

SLAC Research Reveals Rapid DNA Changes that Act as Molecular Sunscreen

June 23, 2014  ·  4 min read
Illustration showing a thymine molecule, DNA helix and the sun.
News Release

Scientists Take First Dip into Water’s Mysterious ‘No Man’s Land’

Scientists at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have made the first structural observations of liquid water at temperatures down to minus...

June 18, 2014  ·  4 min read
Artist's concept - see caption
Feature

Curiosity Created the Chemist

A sense of adventure and intellectual rigor led PULSE chemistry professor Kelly Gaffney to a successful career in science.

June 17, 2014  ·  4 min read
Image - PULSE chemistry professor Kelly Gaffney. (Brad Plummer/SLAC)
Feature

Journal Highlights X-ray Laser Impacts on Biological Science

Even in their infancy, X-ray lasers such as SLAC's Linac Coherent Light Source are notching a list of important discoveries, and a special issue...

June 12, 2014  ·  3 min read
Image - This illustration represents data derived from 175,000 X-ray diffraction patterns of Trapanosoma brucei cathepsin B, a protein relevant to African sleeping sickness, measured with X-ray pulses at SLAC's Linac Coherent Light Source. (CFEL)